F1Weekly Podcast # 920
NASIR AND THE HOST SIMPLY LOVE THE BEAUTY OF THE DAKAR RALLY! CLARK IS ALL OVER THE RENAULT CLIO ICE TROPHY! WE HAVE A SERIOUS GOODY BAG AND HERE IS MORE DAKAR RALLY NEWS…
A 287km loop stage around the Wadi Ad-Dawasir bivouac was the task for Stage 9 of the 2022 Dakar Rally. The roller coaster race track took in canyons and plateaus, plus plenty of dunes in between.
In the car race it was Giniel De Villiers (ZAF) who celebrated his 18th Dakar stage win at the finish line. The South African is now up to fifth overall and chasing down a ninth podium finish of his distinguished Dakar career.
“The mechanics worked really, really hard last night because we had a problem with the dampers on the last two days. Today the car was just unbelievable and really nice to drive.” – Giniel De Villiers
Francisco Lopez Contardo and Juan Pablo Latrach Vinagre on the Can-AM XRS of the EKS – South Racing during the Stage 9 of the Dakar Rally 2022 around Wadi Ad Dawasir, on January 11th 2022 in Wadi Ad Dawasir, Saudi Arabia.
It’s De Villiers’s Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) who continues to control the rally from first place overall. Al-Attiyah has not won a stage since Stage 4, but he has lead the general classification since Stage 1.
“We were third on this stage and we have a good lead overall so we’re quite happy. It’s great to give Toyota a 1-2-3 result today.” – Nasser Al-Attiyah
Despite Al-Attiyah showing no chinks in his armour whatsoever, Sébastien Loeb (FRA) is still throwing everything he can at the Qatari on each passing stage. On Stage 9 the Frenchman was straight into top gear and averaged 158kph over the first 35km of the timed special. Eventually a puncture prevented Loeb from taking a bite out of Al-Attiyah’s overall lead today.
“No mistakes in the navigation and just one little puncture. Apart from the wheel change we did a clean stage without any problems.” – Sébastien Loeb
Carlos Sainz (ESP) for Team Audi Sport after the stage 9 of Rally Dakar 2022 from Wadi Dawasir to Wadi Dawasir,Saudi Arabia on January 11, 2022
It was another solid stage from the trio of Audi Sport drivers; Carlos Sainz (ESP), Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA) and Mattias Ekström (SWE). All three Audi RS Q e-trons placed in the Top 10 with yesterday’s stage winner Ekström the pick of the bunch finishing fourth.
“It was the first time in my life that I had opened a Dakar stage. I didn’t push too much, but I think we did a pretty good job. It was a great experience for us to open the road for all the other cars.” – Mattias Ekström
It was a familiar story in the T3 category, another stage win for Seth Quintero (USA)! The 19-year-old has set the fastest time on every day of the rally so far except one and his stage win count now stands at nine. He needs just one more to equal the record of 10 stage wins set by Pierre Lartigue (FRA) in 1994.
“I’m still in the hunt for the most stage wins. We’ve got a few more stages to go and we need a couple more to break the record.” – Seth Quintero
Play Podcast: 01-11-22f1weekly920.mp3